[11] In March 1917 the squadron re-equipped with the Sopwith Pup biplane fighter aircraft, before it moved to Bray-Dunes, not far away on the French-side of the Franco-Belgian border.

[11] In January 1918 the squadron made a temporary move to Walmer in Kent to rest and refit before returning to the front at Bray-Dunes in March 1918.

[4][13] It re-equipped with Supermarine Scapa, a general reconnaissance flying boat, to replace the elderly Southampton flying boats from August 1935, and in September, it transferred to Aboukir, in Egypt, as part of the United Kingdom's response to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, remaining there until August 1936, when the Squadron returned to Plymouth.

In September 1939, following the start of the Second World War, the squadron began flying convoy escort missions and anti-submarine patrols over the Western approaches.

In August the squadron's Short Sunderland flying boats flew to Gibraltar, where they were based for two weeks before moving on to Bathurst (now Banjul), The Gambia to counter the activity of German Navy submarines in the busy shipping lanes off West Africa.

The squadron was reformed once more on 1 January 1954 at RAF Ballykelly, in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland and was equipped with Avro Shackleton, a long-range maritime patrol aircraft.

In 1965, Ian Smith's Rhodesian minority white government made a Unilateral Declaration of Independence, leading to United Nations sanctions against what was up until then a British colony.

Up until 1972, the sanctions were applied by the Royal Navy working with the RAF, which undertook reconnaissance flights of the Beira Straits from its base in Madagascar.